Insights & News
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Servicing trade mark infringement (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017The use of a third party trademark to provide information or describe a service being offered does not necessarily constitute trademark infringement. Where the use of a trade mark goes beyond that and creates an impression in the average consumer that the particular service is authorised by the trade mark owner, this will constitute an infringement.
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Coty: Keeping up appearances (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017Can a prestigious brand prevent its resellers from selling online? The question was answered firmly in the negative by the European Court of Justice in 2011. In that case, the court said that the French pharmaceutical and cosmetic brand Pierre Fabre could not impose an outright ban on their resellers from selling online.
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Vexed vexillologists: New battleground on Amazon listings (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017The UK’s Intellectual Property Enterprise Court recently found in favour of a brand whose Amazon listing had been high-jacked by a competitor. In very simple terms, manufacturers can create listings for their products on Amazon. Third parties can then add themselves to those listings, and whoever offers the cheapest price is automatically presented as the seller.
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Watching out for individual character (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6)
12 October 2017The EU General Court has dismissed an action to invalidate a Registered Community Design held by Nike for electronic wristbands. The case serves as a useful reminder of the principles to be applied in assessing whether a design has sufficient individual character to be registered.
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Equivalent ways to infringe a patent (Eli Lilly v. Actavis) (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 6))
12 October 2017The Supreme Court has had to determine to what extent courts should depart from the literal wording of a patent claim and consider whether equivalent means to those literally specified in the claim would infringe a patent.
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Ask About … Retail, Fashion & Hospitality
11 October 2017Many of our clients in the retail, fashion and hospitality sector face similar HR issues. Each month one of the members of our team will identify an issue, ask how you would deal with it and provide our advice. This month we asked Lucy...
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When does a chat with competitors become illegal?
09 October 2017We all have discussions with counterparts in our industries. Those conversations are often vital to share knowledge, address common issues, and lobby for change. However, conversations with competitors can easily stray into dangerous territory, leading to potentially cartel behaviour.
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WORKSPHERE commended by FT Innovative Lawyers Awards 2017
Press Release
06 October 2017Lewis Silkin’s comprehensive HR service WORKSPHERE has been commended in the FT Innovative lawyers 2017: New Products and Services category.
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Lewis Silkin advises Blend Media in raising £1.5million on its third funding round
Deal
06 October 2017Lewis Silkin has advised its client Blend Media on its third funding round, in which £1.5 million of investment was secured bringing the total to £2.6 million.
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International data transfers - are model clauses now under threat?
05 October 2017Many of you will remember Max Schrems, the Austrian law student who in 2015 successfully brought a case to the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) that resulted in the “safe harbor” - the agreement that allowed the transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US - being declared invalid.
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James Davies writes for LexisNexis Australia - Robotics, artificial intelligence and work: hope for the best but prepare for the worst
Press
29 September 2017Divisional managing partner, James Davies has written an article for LexisNexis Australia which discusses the impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on the workplace.
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Brexit: from a slow drip to a full-on leak
27 September 2017On 5 September 2017, the Home Office Post-Brexit Immigration Document was leaked to the public. The document – the exact publication date of which we do not know – provides a screenshot of government policy towards EU nationals and their non-EU family members. The document talks about how those individuals will be affected at three separate stages: (1) those in the UK ‘before exit’, (2) those who come to the UK during the ‘implementation phase’, and (3) those who arrive ‘after the implementation period’.
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Lucy Lewis writes an article for The Law Society Gazette on ‘Cardiff: Our launch pad for expansion’
Press
27 September 2017The legal market in Cardiff is thriving, and so is Lewis Silkin’s Cardiff office.
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Court of Appeal orders Hong Kong’s Immigration Department to accommodate same-sex partners as dependants
26 September 2017In a unanimous decision made on 25 September, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Immigration Department’s refusal to issue a dependant visa to the lesbian civil partner of a British expat was not rational.
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Lewis Silkin advises Next Fifteen Group on its acquisition of Charterhouse Research Ltd
Deal
26 September 2017Lewis Silkin, a leading international law firm to creative agencies, has advised Next Fifteen Group (Next 15), the digital communications group, on the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Charterhouse Research Ltd (“Charterhouse”) through its data and insights subsidiary, MIG Global Limited (“MIG”). This deal marks the fourth acquisition that the Lewis Silkin team has been instructed on by Next 15 this year.
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Sean Dempsey comments for The Telegraph: How much regulation is needed to secure an open economy?
26 September 2017Sean Dempsey commented in an article for The Telegraph discussing how businesses and regulatory bodies must not lose sight of workers’ rights and data protection as the way they work is transformed by technology.
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Autonomous Vehicles and the Built Environment
25 September 2017Self-driving cars are on their way. The trailblazers (Tesla, Google, Uber) are conducting increasingly sophisticated tests in real-world conditions. The traditional car makers (General Motors, BMW) are acquiring start-ups or partnering with established tech companies to boost their capabilities. Ford recently promoted the head of its smart mobility unit to chief executive and aims to have a mass market fully autonomous car by 2021.
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Employee liability information is not limited to contractual matters
25 September 2017The Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) has ruled that the employee liability information (“ELI”) that a transferor is required to provide under regulation 11 of TUPE is not limited to contractual entitlements. In addition, the EAT decided that there is no obligation on the transferor to set out whether any entitlement is contractual or not.
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TUPE and collective agreements - static vs dynamic debate revisited
25 September 2017A judgment of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) in a German case has reconsidered the effect of a TUPE transfer on employment terms governed by a collective agreement. The issue to be determined was whether, once a business had transferred, the new employer was compelled to apply the terms and conditions arising from collective agreements adopted after that transfer.
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Busting Brexit
Press Release
25 September 2017At the Shifting World Dynamics and the Evolving Workplace: Global labour law conference which will be held in Hong Kong on 6th October, James Davies from Lewis Silkin will be speaking on Busting Brexit myths in our first session.